New Delhi: Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak on Sunday said that Moscow is prepared to resume gas supplies to Europe via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which was previously suspended due to “political reasons”.
“The European market remains relevant, as the gas shortage persists, and we have every opportunity to resume supplies. For example, the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which was stopped for political reasons, remains unused,” Novak told Russian state news agency TASS on Sunday.
“Even now this market is not closed. For example, we were able to significantly increase LNG supplies to Europe this year; they have increased to 19.4 billion cubic meters in 11 months of 2022, and we expect 21 billion cubic meters by the end of the year,” he mentioned.
According to the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, there is an increase in demand for gas from Europe.
“Today, we can confidently say that there is a demand for our gas. Therefore, we continue to consider Europe as a potential market for the sale of our products. It is clear that a large-scale campaign was launched against us, which ended with acts of sabotage against Nord Stream,” he told TASS.
Russia has been in an energy standoff with Europe after its Ukraine invasion in February.
In May, Gazprom stopped supplies through the Yamal-Europe pipeline running across Poland and stopped sending gas to a distributor in Germany. This was done 44 hours after Ukraine reduced the flow of natural gas across its territory into Europe citing interference by Russian troops.
Gazprom was compelled to end supplies due to sanctions on its parent company, EuRoPol GAZ, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
In December, the West to East gas supply from Germany to Poland was also temporarily halted, “falling to zero,” as per TASS.